Game 1 will be Sunday evening at 9:30 Eastern on TNT
Game 2 will be Wednesday, May 2 9:30 Eastern on TNT
Game 3 will be Saturday, May 5th at 4:30 Eastern on ESPN
Game 4 will be Monday, May 7th and To Be Announced.

Chris Paul hit a pair of free throws with 23.7 seconds left, and the Los Angeles Clippers rallied from 27 down to beat the Grizzlies, 99-98, Sunday night in Memphis in the opening game of this Western Conference series.

Rudy Gay missed a 15-footer with 0.9 seconds left after the Grizzlies squandered a lead they held for the first 47 minutes.

The Clippers lost Caron Butler to a broken left hand. But Nick Young scored 19 points off the bench, including three 3-pointers in the midst of the Clippers’ 26-1 run. Paul finished with 14 points, and Blake Griffin had 17. Butler had 12 before leaving the game.

Gay finished with 19 for Memphis. Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo had 17, and Marc Gasol had 14.

Clippers lose Game 2 105-98 and the series is tied at 1 now. Turnovers killed the Clippers along with giving up so many offensive rebounds and points in the paint. Memphis got some home cooking in Game 2, which is expected and I just hope the Clippers get the same type of treatment in Game 3. Clippers did what they needed, stole home court, now just need to win out at home and everything will be the way it should.

More injuries tonight with Bledsoe, Young and Mo Gotti. Hope they are all fine as Clippers need all three of those guys in the game with Butler and Billups already injured. Simmons did a decent job of stepping up in Butler's absence. Martin wasn't allowed to play his physical brand of D, Evans was invisible, Foye can't hit a shot. Young was solid yet again, should have had a 4 point play in the end as well, but the game was nearing the end. Paul played awesome minus his uncharacteristic DJ was so/so on D, but stupid turnovers. Blake kept getting abused when it came to boxing out.

Clippers had 15 assists and 20 turnovers...were -9 on the boards and gave up 16 on the offensive end. Shot 56.7%, so if they can just control the turnovers teamed with home cooking for themselves, they should be able to retain home court.

LOS ANGELES -- Not even a fractured left hand may be able to keep Los Angeles Clippers forward Caron Butler from the NBA playoffs.

Butler, who suffered a fractured fifth metacarpal in his left hand with 2:38 remaining in the third quarter of Game 1 on Sunday against the Memphis Grizzlies, saw a hand specialist on Thursday in Los Angeles and shot around with the team on Friday, wearing a brace on the hand.

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said Butler, who originally was supposed to be out 4-6 weeks with the injury, would be a game-time decision for Game 3 on Sunday and hasn't ruled out Butler returning at some point this series.

"We got a good report yesterday or as good as you could expect," Del Negro said. "He went through some things today and took some shots and went through some stuff. We'll see how he feels tomorrow. Caron is a tough guy; he's a battler. He wants to be out there but we also want to be smart about it. I'll evaluate that tomorrow. It was good to see him out there. I think it gives the guys a good boost. He's such a big part of our team and I give him a lot of credit for even being out there. "

Butler didn't talk after practice but previously had said he wanted to see if there was any way he could play with the injury after missing last year's playoffs with the Dallas Mavericks after knee surgery. Butler was replaced in the starting lineup on Wednesday by Bobby Simmons.

"Caron wants to be out there and we want him out there but we also want to be smart about it," Del Negro said. "It was good to see him out there today but we'll make that decision tomorrow. I'm not ruling him out but he does have a broken hand, so I want to talk to the doctors a little more."

87-86 Clippers win to take a 2-1 series lead and maintain home court advantage.

Was a great finish by the Clippers, and while they missed free throws, you have to look at who was shooting them before you say they were choking. Bledsoe was 63.6% on the season and Evans is worse than Ben Wallace, so they can't really choke at the line, just shoot how well, or horrible, they usually do. The choking aspect was on Vinny. Mo Williams inbounding with a power forward on him, instead of Nick Young or even Caron Butler. Bledsoe in instead of Mo, when Mo would've knocked those free throws with ease.

I loved how aggressive the Clippers were being, namely Reggie, Kenyon, Foye and Bledsoe despite the officials giving Memphis everything for the first three and the Clippers nothing when both teams were being pretty damn equally physical. Take away the last 8 free throws due to intentional fouls and the Clippers shot 22 free throws to the Grizzlies 39! Don't care if they were 12-22 at that point or 13-30 to end the night, it didn't excuse the inconsistent officiating. I mean, 5 fouls on Martin in 20 minutes, missing the and-1 for Blake when Z-Bo clearly fouled him on that alley-oop, the clean block by Foy3.

Chris Paul again showing his heart, dude really is a winner and thats what the Clippers have been lacking since Cassell back in 06. His basketball IQ is also beyond any player the Clips have had in recent days and think he'd make a great coach one day, is already better than Vinny afterall. I'd be happy if the Clippers would fire Vinny and his staff, bring in Cassell, Mobley, Kim Hughes and Paul Silas next year. Hell, let Billups coach, 13-2 with him on the bench in a suit.

Butler showed a lot of heart, as did Bledsoe, Sushi and Mo as they were all playing hurt out there, though none more than Butler with a fracture in his hand. Just glad it wasn't his shooting hand, but it still affected him as he went 2-7 and had some uncharacteristic turnovers. Mo was 2-4 from three and 2 blocks, just awesome for him to go with Foy3 hitting 4-5 from long range. Blake also started playing good D near the end, even altering shots himself, which was just as huge.

Clippers still aren't in the clear, however. They have a long ways to go in order to improve their defense. Quite a few missed rotations and easy offensive rebounds for Memphis early on in this game. 17 turnovers is also vastly too many and they need to cut that down for the remainder of the series. Being more patient after offensive rebounds along with crispier passes will greatly help in that regard.